Flavones and Flavone Glycosides from Salvia macrosiphon Boiss.

Salvia genus, which is generally called Maryam-Goli in the Persian language, belongs to Lamiaceae family and comprises 58 species in Iran. Four flavonoids plus a steroid compound were isolated from the ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of the aerial parts of Salvia macrosiphon Boiss, using different chromatographic methods on the silica gel and sephadex LH20. The structures of the isolated compounds were determined to be apigenin-7, 4'-dimethyl ether (1), β-sitosterol (2), salvigenin (3) apigenin-7-O-glucoside (4) and luteolin-7-O-glucoside (5) using the (1)H, (13)C-NMR and MS spectra in comparison with those reported in the literature.


Introduction
Salvia genus, which is generally called Maryami or Maryam-Goli in the persian includes around 58 species in Iran (1). Among them S. sahendica, S. urmiensis, S. persepolitana and S. hypoleuca excursively grow in Iran and the others grow in iraq, armenia, egypt, russia, saudi arabia and anatoly (1-3). Previous phytochemical investigations revealed the presence of phenolic anthocyanins, diterpenes and sesquiterpenes in the several Salvia species (4,5). Salvia has been used in traditional and folk medicine as a diuretic agent, tonic, anti rheumatoid and chronic pains, since antiquity (4).
Salvia macrosiphon Boiss. is a quite-abundant and polymorphic plant in Iran and afghanistan. It is a perennial, herbaceous, strongly aromatic, lemon-scented and pale yellowish green plant. Its stems are few to several from a woody rootstock, up to 60 cm, erect, sturdy, quadrangular, below eglandular pilose, above with a dense indumentum of short glandular hairs and sessile oil globules (1). Till now, we have studied the genetic relations among some Salvia species using molecular biological assays which showed that S. macrosiphon t and S. Aethiopis are extremely alike and S. brachyantha has a genetic distance far from Satureja species (6). few reports on phytochemical investigation of S. macrosiphon. Recently, composition of the essential oil of S. macrosiphon has been components, representing 93.3% of the oil, were characterized. The main constituents of the oil were reported as linalool (26.3%), hexyl hexanoate (9.6%), hexyl isovalerate (9.3%), hexyl-2-methyl-butanoate (8.9%), sclareol (7.2%) and hexyl octanoate (6.1%) (7).
Previously, the chemical composition of the essential oil of S. macrosiphon, collected around Tehran, was reported (8). The main components of the oil of S. macrosiphon were -gurjunene (11%), -cubebene (10.6%) and germacrene-B 13-epi-manoyl oxide) has been reported from the aerial parts of S. macrosiphon originated of In this paper, we aimed to report the separation and structural elucidation of the main phytochemical constituents from the aerial parts of S. macrosiphon which has not been previously reported.

Results and Discussion
Isolated compounds (Figure 1 comparison of its NMR data with those reported in references (12). The pattern of B ring in salvigenin was similar to compound 1 but there was a different pattern in the A ring (5 hydroxy and 6, 7 dimethoxy). The chemical shifts of the carbon signals in salvigenin represented three methyl ether group substituted at 6, 7 and 4' positions. In relation to the compound 5, the glucose moiety must be connected to 7-O comparing the 1H and 13 C-NMR spectra with published data (10, 11). isolated from S. macrosiphon, the compounds apigenin-7, 4'-dimethyl ether (1), apigenin-7-Oglucoside (4) and luteolin-7-O-glucoside (5) are effect of apigenin-7-glucoside (A7G) on skin of reactive oxygen species and free radicals, has been studied. The results indicated the inhibition in a dose dependent manner (16).
Recently, we reported the presence of Dracocephalum the PDGF-BB-induced (platelet-derived growth factor-BB) proliferation and the DNA synthesis of the VSMCs (vascular smooth muscle cells) in a concentration-dependent manner (17). It seems that the abnormal proliferation of aortic VSMCs plays an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and also in the development of hypertension (17)(18)(19). Anti-asthmatic activity Ailanthus altissima) was evaluated in an in-vivo murine asthmatic model Salvia macrosiphon 1 R 1 = H ; R 2 = OCH 3 ; R 3 = OCH 3 ; R 4 = H 3 R 1 = H ; R 2 = OCH 3 ; R 3 = OCH 3 ; R 4 = OCH 3 4 R 1 = H ; R 2 = OH ; R 3 = OGlc ; R 4 = H 5 R 1 = OH ; R 2 = OH ; R 3 = OGlc ; R 4 = H and the results suggested that the anti-asthmatic regulation of T-helper 2 cytokine transcripts as well as the inhibition of prostaglandin E 2 production (20). Apigenin-7, 4'-dimethyl ether was previously isolated as the major compound of Teucrium polium and showed antioxidative activity (15).
In conclusion, many plant families are show a large variability of structures. Flavonoids in Salvia species have such a potential, not only to indicate the biological and pharmacological activities, but also to provide the useful taxonomic characters, especially at the infra different geographic origin), and possibly at the (15)